The hospitality and wedding industry is one of the biggest casualties of the COVID pandemic. With an understandable need to prioritise everyone’s health and safety, thousands of weddings have been cancelled or postponed in 2020 and 2021. The disruption will have had a massive impact on wedding planning for seasons to come.
With the majority of 2020 weddings expected to have been postponed, the next couple of seasons are set to be busy. The increase in demand for dates will mean we’ll see weddings on more unusual days and seasons causing a huge trend shift towards weekday and off-season weddings.
Winter Weddings
Planning a winter wedding can be very different from a summer wedding, especially when it comes to your wedding food and drink options. Winter weddings can offer a wide range of wedding catering options as the colder weather broadens your choices which can actually allow you to plan a more unique day. Consider your wedding reception drinks, you may like to stick to a traditional reception drink such as champagne but you could also offer something more seasonal and warming such as mulled wine.
If your wedding venue has beautiful grounds then your wedding party may get a little cold during the wedding photos and will want to enjoy some nice hot wedding food. If you do plan for your guests to be outside, keep them toasty with warm canapés like roast beef and horseradish mini Yorkshire pudding, or something a little more casual such as mini beef burgers.
Whether you are looking for traditional British dishes or fine dining options, Lovejoy Catering and Events have a beautiful range of warm starters, mains and desserts which will make your guests feel full and content on your wintery wedding day. We can even tailor our wedding breakfast menu to include a family favourite.
Garden and Marquee Weddings
Outdoor and garden weddings might not be your first choice of wedding venue given the unreliable British weather but given the continued need for social distancing, they are likely to become far more common. You may want to use a marquee to increase the space available at your current venue, to allow for additional guests whilst remaining within government restrictions. Whilst it is not currently possible to host your wedding in a non-COVID secure venue, such as your back garden, this may prove to be a popular choice once restrictions are lifted.
One of the advantages of a marquee wedding is being able to choose your own wedding caterer. However, if you do choose to host your wedding in a marque, rather than a venue, there are a few things to consider; your wedding caterers will need to set up a kitchen in a catering tent, they will need to have access to running water and electricity, and they may need to bring a refrigerated van. Lovejoy Catering and Events conduct a full site visit to ensure that your wedding venue and wedding catering choices are compatible.
There are some wedding food options that work particularly well for outdoor and marquee weddings such as barbecues, hog roasts and buffet stations. Coronavirus restrictions haven’t completely stopped buffet-style food options but some changes are required to keep everyone safe. Staff are now serving buffets and guests are not able to touch the utensils or crockery until their plate is handed to them at the end of the food table.
Lovejoy Catering and Events can be flexible and offer a wide range of wedding catering options whilst having robust processes in place to ensure the safety of you and your guests.
Unique Wedding Food Choices
More and more couples are thinking outside the box when it comes to wedding food choices. As budgets have decreased alongside the guestlist there has been a rise in enquiries for casual and understated wedding food options, such as street food. For some a smaller guest list has meant more elaborate, fine dining options are now possible.
With so many restrictions affecting many elements of their big day, couples are really focusing on the food they want to serve their guests. Many want to make their wedding day unique by incorporating their family dishes into the menu, especially if the wedding is an intimate, family affair.
One of the biggest changes at many weddings is that the traditional expensive wedding cake has been replaced by a smaller one-tier cake or cupcakes, which are served in place of a dessert. Another option is small desserts that are served to guests in shot glasses. Lovejoy Catering and Events offer some delicious small desserts which can be easily incorporated into any menu and budget.
Smaller Weddings
For those couples who were determined to get married in 2020 they were forced to scale down their wedding ceremony and have just 30, or even 15 guests, and it is likely that these smaller weddings are here to stay. ‘Micro weddings’ of between 15 and 50 guests are likely to be commonplace moving forward, particularly in the UK.
A positive of smaller weddings is that fewer guest numbers usually means a bigger wedding food budget. This means that fine dining options and special extras, such as beautiful cutlery, glassware and linen are now within reach to make the day extra special.
There are still many couples that hope to have the big wedding of their dreams and will continue to postpone in the hope that this will eventually be possible.
Whatever your wedding catering plans Lovejoy Catering and Events would love to be part of your special day. Get in touch with our friendly events team to discuss your big, or small, wedding day plans.
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